With the Montreal Canadiens finishing their western road trip with an overtime loss against Seattle yesterday, having acquired four points out of a possible eight, two things came to mind the following day:

1: I’m so glad I won’t have to stay up until one in the morning again to finish watching a hockey game.

2: Despite playing some pretty good hockey overall, these kinds of results will be enough to keep Montreal in the playoffs race… But it won’t be enough to win it.

As they sit one point behind the Blue Jackets with one less game to play, every game played and every potential point will matter if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Now of course they’re not going to win every game. Losing to the Oilers in overtime is no big deal and not being able to score in Calgary as Dustin Wolf showed us all why he’s still in the Calder trophy conversation can happen.

However, losing a point against the Kraken as you enter the third period with a 4-2 lead? That one is harder to swallow for everyone. These are exactly the points you cannot afford to lose. And if you’re telling me the Habs were lucky to have that 4-2 lead in the first place, well… I can’t hear you because of all the sounds of pucks hitting the posts next to Dobes.

The next four games will not be easy as they will feature either very good teams (Panthers, Avalanche) or teams directly involved in the eastern conference playoffs race (Senators and Islanders). Montreal needs to find a way to come out of this with more than half the available points for this to be considered a step in the right direction.

Carried by the first line

Ever since Kent Hughes used his infinite wisdom and told Nick Suzuki to “go win some games”, proving once again that sometimes the simplest advice is the best one, the team’s captain and his linemates have pretty much decided to carry the team on their back.

Since the 4 nations tournament (9 games played), all three members of the top lines care producing at an elite level:

Suzuki: 4 goal and 12 assists;
Caufield: 6 goals and 4 assists;
Slafkovsky: 6 goals and 4 assists;

Some might point out that this is likely an unsustainable production for the trio over the last 20 games, but it’s been extremely fun to watch them go and be the best line on the ice on most nights. And if Montreal is to play in their first playoffs game since 2021, they’ll need to remain as good while hoping for a little help from the rest of the team.

Evans’s new contract

After months of speculations, it seems that Jake Evans finally decided that sticking around and playing for the Montreal Canadiens was more important to him than whatever more money he could get on the free agent market when he signed a four year contract extension that will see him paid $2.85M per season until 2029. While many will consider Evans a little crazy to turn his back on a few millions of dollars, I think what he did was avoid a mistake many free agents make when they decide to change teams. How often do you see players go from an environment where they are successful, appreciated and a significant part of their team to a free agent bust that looks miserable elsewhere?

In my opinion, Evans made the best possible choice for his own happiness, which was to stay in a locker room that respects him, where he plays an important role and in a city that he has learned to call “home”.

From the team’s perspective, while many have called this an amazing bargain, I’m looking at it from a different point of view. I was fully against the idea of giving 4M dollars (which was the number thrown around the internet) to Jake Evans as a bottom 6 centre. The way I see it, Montreal gave him exactly what he was worth for it to be considered a “good” contract.

Bottom line, I’m glad Jake Evans sticks around, I’m glad management stuck to what they considered a fair offer and didn’t overpay him and I’m more than glad we finally seem to have a team culture that makes players willing to sacrifice some money to play here and be part of what we are building.

Thank you all for reading and have a nice day!

Hugo Brossoit (Scabeh)

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